An Educated Guess
by inkheart9459
Summary: Regina's returned to Storybrooke ten years after high school and six years after her mother kicked her out and forced her to cut all ties with everyone she knew. She never thought she'd see or even talk to Miss Swan again, but when she sees a familiar Bug in the high school parking lot as she's walking around town, maybe she was wrong. And maybe if she's lucky something more.
1. Chapter 1

So I finally wrote that sequel to Science Doesn't Have an Answer for This. And if you haven't read that, you probably should go read that first to get the full impact here. Since this is also my Big Bang Story, there's art that goes along with this story over at AO3. It's great, cashmerecandycane did a wonderful job and I'm still screaming happily about it a month later. So yeah, now story time.

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Regina drew in a deep breath. It smelled just as she remembered. Almost everything was as she remembered. In a universe that tended toward chaos, always changing, always breaking down into minute pieces and reassembling into something completely different, Storybrooke always managed to resist that impulse. Storefronts had a new coat of paint on them, the people were older, there was a new group of young ones running around, and yet somehow it was still the same. It had to be a special property of small towns.

She smiled slightly, thinking of ridiculous experiments that could be run to prove such a hypothesis. They would have to be long running of course, nothing like what she was thinking of could be proved at a glance. There would need to be a control set up in a large city, and maybe something mid-sized as well to pin point just what it was that kept small towns as they were for seeming eons.

Though she supposed ten years was only an eon to those who had both felt trapped in this town when they were young and felt a slight longing for it once they left. Regina didn't think she'd really started to feel the longing until she couldn't go back. She had burned her one bridge to Storybrooke the second she had chosen to pursue her doctorate in physics instead of graduating and becoming a political analyst like her mother wanted. Nothing made you want to return to a place like the fact that you couldn't.

But her mother was dead now. She had stressed herself into a massive heart attack the year before. She had attended the funeral and had even felt sadness, but regret…she didn't think there would be any. She had no illusions that the world would be better with one less person like her mother. She felt free and only years of therapy had let her see that there was no guilt in that.

She kept walking, hearing the waves beating against the beach now, getting closer to the shoreline with every step. It was mild, summer having come finally to the north after a hard winter. Regina hadn't been around to witness it, but her father had told her it was one of the worst on record. She worried about him dealing with such winters now that he was getting older, but she knew that he wouldn't leave the area until he was dead. At least this fall she would be closer, if you could call Boston closer. It was closer than Pasadena, but it was still hours away. She supposed she would figure out something better when it was really necessary. For now her father was still working and leading an active lifestyle and if his smile was a little bigger in the last year, well she wasn't saying anything.

Her old high school came into view and her heart swelled. This was the place where her life had all started, the place that had set her on the path she was on now. She saw the banner across the gym declaring the 10th reunion of her class in large silver letters on a black background, glinting in the sun. The reunion wasn't the only reason she was in town, or really the reason at all, but she wasn't not going to go since she was here. She hadn't seen Ruby face to face for years and it had been a while for Kathryn too. They had all kept in touch miraculously. Daniel would have kept in touch, if he had made it past that first summer after high school. One riding accident and he was gone. They had felt his loss for a long time, but now it was only a dull ache.

She walked along the build and back to the parking lot. School was finished for the year so no one would be back there, but she felt as if she needed to see everything, the parking lot, the playing fields that extended off the back of the school stretching away to the sand dunes that separated everything from the cliffs and the seashore. She had been by before in her few summers at home during undergrad, but this felt more somehow.

Regina turned the corner expecting the peaceful empty scene she'd called up, but gasped. There was a bright yellow VW bug sitting alone in the parking lot. It couldn't be. And it wasn't exactly. The car in front of her wasn't that death trap of a bug she remember, but one of the new models, redesigned and sleeker than the older counterpart, but still that god awful shade of yellow. She felt her lips turning up at the corners despite herself.

Regina had lost contact with Miss Swan during the chaos of being disowned by her mother. That summer she had come home and told her mother she had accepted her offer from Caltech and the next morning she had been kicked out of her house with nothing but the clothes on her back. She had planned for it, really. She had a paid internship lined up in Boston, the lease on her apartment from the school year hadn't run out until August and her mother had paid up front for it, and there was enough nonperishable food there to last her until her first paycheck came through. But she hadn't planned for her mother to take her phone, laptop, and car in the process. By the time she had gotten another cell phone months later she'd already realized that her mother had deleted her iCloud account and with it all her contacts. She had wanted Regina to come crawling back to her.

She hadn't.

Her feet carried her forward. Six years. It had been six years since she had talked to Miss Swan and she had felt them dearly. Of course she had moved on in a way. She had started to at the end of her senior year. She had loved the other woman dearly, so very dearly, but she had realized that loving someone that much sometimes meant letting go of them, at least in the romantic sense. The stabbing intensity had departed for something more like a mild ache of something that could have been, but never was, and she was fine with that. She had gained a friend that supported her through everything, who had helped plan everything that she would need for when her mother disowned her, who cheered her through finals, and projects, and research problems.

And God, had she missed her. Her fingers touched the shiny yellow paint of the Bug and she sighed. It was disaster on the inside, she could see that through the windows. She had thought that Miss Swan would leave Storybrooke once she had gotten a few years under her belt, but she knew this was her car. Everything about it screamed of the other woman. She was still here.

Regina felt herself tear up just a bit at that. She could have that friend again. Her head lifted and she looked around. Miss Swan had to be around here somewhere if her car was here. The obvious answer was that she was inside the school, but Regina couldn't get in there so that answer didn't do much for her. She didn't want to just sit around waiting like some sort of freak. It would be better if it seemed as if she had just happened upon the other woman.

But yet she knew that she would wait if she had to, to see Miss Swan again. She walked around to the front of the car and leaned against the hood, feeling the light breeze against her face. Sitting like this it wasn't hard to imagine that the last ten years hadn't happened. Waiting for Miss Swan brought her back to the time before her post doc, before her Ph.D., before even undergrad. It was scary to feel so young again for that moment. Her experience in the world was what had kept her afloat all these years alone in the world. And yet she couldn't regret it.

She heard the sound of the automatic door clicking open and her eyes snapped open. There Miss Swan was after all these years, arms full of boxes and papers and a thousand other things. Regina was moving forward before she even knew what was happening. She met Miss Swan halfway, just as the other woman was about to drop something. She caught it and took some more of the load from the woman's arms.

"I see time hasn't changed much, has it? Is this all from your desk?" Regina asked, looking into clear green eyes. Somehow the woman in front of her had gotten more beautiful in the years she hadn't seen her.

"Regina," Miss Swan said, surprised.

"Hello, Miss Swan, long time no see."

Miss Swan dropped everything that was in her arms to the ground and pulled Regina into a crushing hug. "Oh my god, when I didn't hear from you I thought your mother had murdered you or something."

Regina's heart was beating hard, butterflies instantly in her stomach. She hadn't felt this way in years and one touch and she was fallen all over again. She wrapped her arms around Miss Swan and hugged her back hard, smelling that tinge of chemical laced cinnamon of the chemistry room and then there was that undertone of the metallic scent of rain and lilies that was Miss Swan. So many memories hit her at the same time she felt overloaded. Scent was the strongest sense tied to memory, she knew that, but oh god feeling it was another thing.

When they pulled apart Regina took a deep breath of fresh air to right herself. "Well, you aren't completely wrong. She took away my phone, laptop, and car then kicked me out and told me if she ever saw me again she'd destroy me. Ruby had to drive me to the bus station and buy a ticket to Boston for me. To add insult to injury she deleted all the accounts that were logged in on my computer so all my contacts were gone when I did manage to scrape together enough money for a phone months later. I tried to search you out on social media and google but I couldn't no matter how I tried. Mother had enough friends in the school to stone wall me every time I called here as well."

"My god." Miss Swan backed up and sat down on the curb. "I stopped looking after six months. I…well after a while I thought that you just didn't want to talk to me anymore." She shrugged like it wasn't a big deal. "It happens, sometimes people just fade away like that, all of a sudden."

It had been years, and so Regina couldn't quite pinpoint what, but she knew something was wrong. She sat down beside Miss Swan and leaned against her. "Some people do, yes, but I didn't, at least not by choice. You were too important to me. You still are. I saw your car in the parking lot and the first thing I thought was it wasn't too late to see you again. Some people are just too important to fade."

Miss Swan took a shuddering breath and nodded. "Well then, we have a lot to catch up on then, don't we?" She looked over at Regina with a smile. "Why don't we start with why you're in town?"

A breeze blew and picked up some of the papers that Miss Swan had dropped. The older woman squawked and lunged after them. "Damn it I knew I should have put everything in folders!"

Regina laughed for a few seconds before getting up and helping Miss Swan gather up the wayward papers. This time the other woman walked over to her car and unlocked it before throwing everything in the back seat. Regina cocked an eyebrow at that action.

"Are you sure you're going to be able to find everything you throw back there when you get home?" she asked.

Miss Swan stuck her tongue out. "It's an organized mess. I know where everything is."

Regina snorted. "Like you did when I was in high school?"

"Hush, you know too much." She took the papers from Regina's hands and threw them down with the others and shut the door. "You didn't get a chance to answer my question, why are you here?"

"Visiting my father before I start my job, mostly. My apartment in LA's lease was up at the end of last month, and my apartment in Boston's lease doesn't start until the beginning of next, so I thought I'd spend my free time here. It definitely beats paying for short term storage and staying in a hotel."

"What about your mother?"

Regina looked over at the other woman. "How did you not hear? I was told it was a rather large to-do when she died last year. There was some ceremony for her celebrating how much she did for the community and everything."

Miss Swan shrugged. "I don't pay attention to town news much. The news I keep up with is more national and international in scope." She paused for just a moment. "I'm not sad that I missed that funeral, though."

Regina hummed. "I don't blame you, though if you had come perhaps we would have seen each other again a year sooner."

"You make a good point." Miss Swan leaned against her car. "But now that she's dead you can come home again, I assume since you're here."

"Yes, I can. I have been, but LA is far away and plane tickets are costly even for a postdoc."

"You did a postdoc?" Miss Swan perked up.

"I did. Caltech wanted me to continue my research after my graduation so they offered me a position. It was a wonderful experience. The professor I worked under for my Ph.D. and postdoc was so amazing. He had so much to teach and was perhaps the kindest person I've ever met." She looked away for just a second before meeting Miss Swan's eyes again. "I have only one regret about going to grad school there, and now that seems to be righted."

Miss Swan smiled slightly. "Yeah, so it appears." She scuffed her feet on the ground. "Do you want to get dinner? It's Friday and that Mexican place I took you to your senior year still has that tamale dish that's to die for only on Fridays. Since we have a lot to catch up on that's probably a good place to do it, don't you think?"

She felt like she did years ago when Miss Swan had invited her to dinner the first time. God, would all of this be just a flashback to when she was eighteen?

"Yes, I think that's a wonderful idea."

"Awesome. Um, just let me clean out the front seat so you have somewhere to sit."

Regina laughed until her sides hurt, leaning against the side of the Bug, sun surrounding her, and feeling more complete than she had in a long time. "Things really don't change, do they?" She asked when she finally got her breath back.

Miss Swan looked at her with a smile, opening her passenger door. "The important things don't."

"I'm not exactly sure your messiness is an important thing."

The other woman tilted her head, giving Regina that point. "I meant more who I am as a person and who you are hasn't changed. Messiness is a part of that, though you're right if I could ditch that I would be totally cool with it." She scooped some papers up out of the seat and tossed them in the back.

"Any reason your car looks like twice the mess as normal?"

"I'm cleaning out my classroom by degrees. Doing it all at once would be a disaster."

"You cleaning?"

"I think we have already established the fact that I don't do it often enough, Regina." She stuck out her tongue. "There's no need to harp on it." She stepped back a second later and nodded. "There, paper free seat. Milady." Miss Swan bowed cornily and gestured for Regina to sit down.

Regina snorted but slipped into the passenger seat as Miss Swan walked around and practically flop into the driver's side. She started the car and it actually sounded like a regular car starting unlike the Bug before it which always sounded like it was on the verge of death and destruction every time the key was turned. The interior was less cramped too she was glad to notice.

"No, but seriously, I'm moving school systems so I have to get everything that's mine out of my old classroom."

Regina looked over at Miss Swan. "Where are you moving too?" Her stomach fell through the bottom of the car and onto the ground and may have just kept plummeting. She had found the other woman just to lose her proximity again. She bit the inside of her lip hard. At least they would be able to exchange phone numbers again.

"Boston, well Brookline technically because I'll be teaching in Brookline Public Schools, but that's basically Boston if not in name."

A small smile bloomed on Regina's face. Brookline was close to where she would be, very close. She wouldn't be losing the other woman at all, quite the opposite. They could even have coffee together on their days off if they wanted to, and oh how Regina wanted to.

"Oh, I'll be in Cambridge. We'll be close then."

"Yeah, I guess we will." Miss Swan smiled over at her before shifting into gear and driving out of the parking lot. "So obviously I'm teaching there, what are you doing? Working with your alma mater?"

Regina shook her head. "I have an associate professorship at MIT."

Miss Swan whistled. "Jesus, Regina, that's amazing. I would hug you again but I don't think we want to crash."

"No, I don't think that would be a good idea," she said deadpan. "But thank you." She looked out the window for a few seconds, watching the town she once knew like the back of her hand whip by. "You're the one who inspired me to want to teach." Her words were quiet, but she felt the weight of them in the air. It was funny how infinitesimally small things could affect things so much, but that was why she was a particle physicist, wasn't it. She loved investigating such effects. However, those effects usually weren't so important to her. She wanted to see how her words would land.

"Wow," Miss Swan finally said. "Hearing that from you, the smartest person I think I've met, and most definitely the best student I've had, that means…honestly there aren't any words for it." Her hand reached out for Regina and found it resting on Regina's lap. She squeezed it once firmly before resting her arm back on the center consol. "Did I ever tell you why I got into teaching?"

"No, I don't think you did."

They pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant and into a parking space. Miss Swan turned fully to Regina and made no move to go into the Mexican place just yet. "You know I was a foster kid, and one that didn't have a great time in the system."

Regina nodded. Of course she did, that was one of the reasons why Miss Swan had had such good advice on how to deal with her mother. They had spoken about various situations that the older woman had ended up in, some good but most were not. She couldn't forget about that.

"There's one and only one reason why I'm sitting here today. In high school there was this English teacher, her name was Miss Blanchard." She smiled fondly. "The woman was in her mid-twenties when I met her but she dressed like an old lady with pastel cardigans and all. I was a sophomore and fifteen and thought I knew it all because I had a bad home life and what more could there be out there for someone no one wanted?"

"But Miss Blanchard wasn't really having any of that. She was very into helping everyone, sometimes to the point of it blowing up worse than before, but she had a good heart. She basically just kept after me and after me and made me come in for tutoring and tracked me down during her free period when I skipped school and then dragged me back in, and honestly she became the mom I never had, you know? And from sophomore year on it was like that. It still is like that, really. I go over to her house for holidays and was a bridesmaid in her wedding and I watch their kids on occasion, the whole nine yards. And the reason I wanted to be a teacher was so that I could be someone like that to the kids I taught. Super idealistic, I'm well aware, but it doesn't have to be all the kids that come through my door, it only has to be a few, maybe only one, but as long as I help someone, it will all be worth it to me."

Regina took a deep breath. She reached out for Miss Swan's hand and took it, not letting go. "You helped me, more than you will ever realize, you helped me. You're here because of Miss Blanchard but I'm here because of you."

Miss Swan interlaced the fingers of their hands. "Thank you." Their moment stretched for a long few seconds, words flowing between them without being spoken, body language and eye movements doing the work that a thousand words could. There was something there that hadn't been years ago. Regina couldn't place it, but it was certainly there.

"Well, I'm definitely not a surrogate mother to you, but friend, good friends mean just as much, sometimes more." Miss Swan's words broke the moment, but the smile on her face softened the blow of having their small bubble popped.

"Yes, they do." Regina squeezed Miss Swan's hand before pulling away. "What do you say we go get those tamales before your stomach start growling?"

Miss Swan blushed. "Of course you remember that."

She slid from the car. "Miss Swan, you'll find I remember just about everything about you." She shut the door and waited patiently for the other woman to join her.

Regina didn't have to wait long before Miss Swan was popping out of the car and walking around the car to her.

"You can't remember everything."

They started to walk towards the entrance of the restaurant at last.

"No, statistically that is impossible, but as I said, just about everything, not everything. There is a distinction in there."

"So I see that Caltech refined your sarcastic tendencies."

Regina laughed. "You have to do something to keep sane when pursuing a Ph.D. in physics."

"Uh huh, sure."

The hostess, a girl of about high school age, bustled from the back of the restaurant and smiled at them. "Hey Miss Swan, here for the Friday special again? And this time you roped a friend into it."

"Yeah, Maria, I am. What can I say, your Mom's cooking is to die for and I have to spread the love."

"She'll be glad to hear it, just like she is every week. Mama never gets tired of your compliments, nor anyone else's." She grinned and led them both to a table in the back. It wasn't the same table from years ago, but it was in the same section. Regina looked over at that table with a wistful smile. She remembered feeling so much hope back then, untempered by reality. Oh, she still had hope now, but it was different, smaller, it reached for things mostly attainable, but still present and still strong.

She looked across the table to Miss Swan. Her hope was strong enough to ignite all that long ago yearning. Regina couldn't quite begrudge that.

"Student?" Regina asked

Miss Swan nodded. "Yup, from last year's bunch. She's a bright kid and a hard worker."

Regina nodded. A comfortable silence fell between the two of them. She had always heard about the people you could fall in with after years and years and be as comfortable as you were before the separation, but she had never actually experienced it. It was a bit of a relief now to have that be the case with Miss Swan. She didn't know what she would have done if things had been awkward between them. It would have popped one of the few idealistic bubbles she had left with, she was sure. In the long run it wouldn't have hurt much, but at first it would have stung a great deal.

Their waiter showed up a minute later and took their drink orders. Regina spent a few seconds looking over the menu before deciding quickly and glancing back at Miss Swan.

"So why Boston now?" she asked.

Miss Swan shrugged. "I felt it was time for a change. Storybrooke is nice and I enjoy it, but it was never meant to be a stopping point for me, you know?"

"You did tell me that you were only here because there was a job here."

"Yeah, I planned on putting in five years here to get a leg up on all the new teachers coming out of school for the good jobs, but then I decided to stay another year after the pay raise five years brought and save up the extra money for a nicer apartment. The next year I decided right around the same time that you were applying to grad school that I wanted a masters and that would really give me a leg up. I finished up last year then applied to jobs all of this year. I applied all over to whatever big city caught my eye and I had a couple interviews, one skype interview for a school in LA, a couple in New York City, and three in Boston. I took the school in Brookline obviously, it's a gorgeous place and a great school, and honestly I wanted something with a little more diversity than Storybrooke."

Regina played with the straw the waiter had left absently. "Storybrooke is very, very white bread. I don't think I realized how much until I went off to college."

Miss Swan snickered. "Yeah, I remembered the culture shellshock you went through, but you did well."

Now Regina felt herself blushing just a bit. "I like to think so, but there's still so many problematic thought processes I have to work around."

"Everyone has those, as long as you keep working on it, that's all anyone can ask."

The waiter came back with their drinks and took their order before disappearing into the wings again.

"So, obviously grad school went well if you have a position at MIT waiting after the summer ends, and you said you worked with an awesome professor, but what else? Did you meet anyone special, go skydiving, rocky mountain climbing?"

"Yes, all of the above, I also went 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fu Man Chu." She shook her head. "Has Storybrooke really gotten to you that much that you know country music lyrics now?"

"Hey! You're the one who completed them, pot calling the kettle black here."

Regina cocked an eyebrow. "Miss Swan, I grew up here, some things you just learn by osmosis and can't unlearn."

"And yet I remember you being the one to give me a lecture about learning by osmosis not really being a thing."

"I was sixteen, give me a break."

"I suppose I will." Miss Swan's eyes were tickling in the dim light of the restaurant and Regina's breath caught. How was it that they could have such a similar dinner here ten years a part? How was it that this woman was so fucking beautiful that it left her reduced to profanity and utterly breathless. She felt her hands clench into fists, trying to distract herself from the sight in front of her, but the trick that had worked for her before did not now.

"And call me Emma. You've been out of school for ten years now, it's a little odd for you to still call me Miss Swan since you've been my friend longer than you ever were my student."

Oh and if Regina was having problems before, she was having utter catastrophes going on inside her now. Miss Swan had asked her to call her Emma. They were going to be on a first name basis. It was all she ever wanted when she was younger. It was still.

"And there are like five years between us, someone is going to think it's some weird sex thing eventually." Miss Sw—Emma laughed again with that same glint in her eyes.

Regina couldn't help but laugh along too. "Something tells me that that is not one of your kinks."

Emma shivered. "God no, could you imagine how awkward work would be if it was? They are completely different situations of course, but like, I feel like one inevitable day the wires would just get crossed and the completely wrong thing would come tumbling out of someone's mouth and Jesus would I not want to risk that. I have my kinks, don't get me wrong, but I keep them very, very far away from the school environment."

Regina's face was flaming red now, she could tell, but not for the obvious reason. Oh no, she wasn't embarrassed, or well, it wasn't all that, but she was turned on as well. Images were flashing behind her eyelids of every possible kink the woman in front of her could have and scenarios where the two of them played them out together. She had thought that the years would calm this down, but maybe she had lost her immunity in the years they'd been apart.

"But your smartassery never answered my question, how was grad school? Stories of significant other mishaps, experiments going horribly wrong, idiot undergrads that you were TAing, I'll listen to whatever you want to tell me." She sat forward, eager.

"Well…" Regina trailed off, eyes looking up to the left, trying to remember something truly noteworthy that she wanted to tell. "Third and fourth year I had a girlfriend. We'd met taking an advanced quantum mechanics course second year and had become friends studying for the exams. My god, those exams, I thought that I was going to die studying for that class. They were bad. But they brought this girl, Mal, and I together. She was a physical chemistry major working on energy materials for solar cells, so we knew a lot about what the other was talking about without actually both being physics majors. People dating the same major never works well."

"No, god, it does not." Emma frowned for a few seconds and Regina made a note to ask about that later.

"Exactly, but it went really well for a while. We sort of kindled each other's interests in our subjects again and kept each other going towards our goals and it was nice. But as is the way of things, it fell apart fourth year. We were both busy and Mal was an absolute dragon of a woman when overstressed and after a while we both just sort of agreed that it was better if we went back to being friends. It worked out for the both of us and we did manage to stay friends. She got a job right out of her Ph.D. at a solar energy company and last she told me she's now in a relationship with two other women named Ursula and Cruella."

"Well that's a new one, I've never had an ex go on to have a polyamrous relationship but stranger things have happened. Were their parents Disney fanatics by any chance?"

"Ursula's parents were actually more into Hans Christian Anderson's original tale…and Cruella's parents were just odd."

Emma nodded. "Yeah I feel, after this year with five Chadrick's and seven variations of Lindi…which I was instructed to spell with an 'i' but it's always spelled with an 'i', I feel."

"You don't have much room for complaint, you're not the one who worked in California, I've on occasion encountered people with names like Purple Sapphire and Crystal Haze. Not often but they're experiences you don't soon forget."

Emma slapped her hand on the table. "There can't possibly be purple sapphires, their chemical composition makes them absorb red light while it reflects blue, there's no two ways about it."

"I am well aware, the general populous, however, is not."

Emma sighed and shook her head.

Regina sat in silence as she contemplated asking her next question. Struggled with it, really. But she soon acknowledged that she might as well take the chance, science would be nothing without exploration, dangerous as it often was.

Steeling herself with a sip of her drink and a deep breath she asked, "So, what about you. Has there been anyone special in your life?" Oh god, but Regina was conflicted. How could a person want someone to be single, and married, and recently out of a relationship with a woman all at the same time. At least she knew that, overall, what she truly wanted was Emma's happiness.

"You mean besides you?" Emma asked with an easy smile.

Regina's heart did a painful thud in her chest, but she cocked an eyebrow and pursued, "Considering I haven't been a part of your life for the past six years, yes."

"The year after you left for grad school I got into a pretty serious relationship. But uhh...it ended two years ago, pretty badly, and since then it's just been casual dates."

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Regina murmured.

"Don't be, Lily was a raging bitch, I should have broken it off with her way sooner than I did, but that's life I guess." Emma shrugged.

Regina barely registered much of what Emma said past 'her'. All of Regina's high school fantasies sprang to life before her in a montage of sexual frustration, only in her most wild of dreams had Emma held any interest in women. And that turning out to be a reality shook the very foundations of what Regina thought she knew about where her relationship with Miss Swan could go. Emma.

Her thoughts were halted by the blessed arrival of their waiter with their steaming plates of food. Regina took the few moments of interruption to more clearly gather her thoughts so the next words out of her mouth weren't some pathetic declaration of her high school ambitions.

"It's better now that I'm single anyway, it's a hell of a lot easier to move," Emma said as she began cutting into her food with her fork. "Besides, that just leaves us free to party it up in Boston, huh?" She grinned and gave Regina a quick wink that caused the raven haired woman to choke on her drink.

Surely Emma hadn't meant that the way Regina's mind was thinking of it, no those images of late nights with her former teacher were most likely a far cry from Emma's ideas.

"Whoa there, you okay Regina?" Emma asked, reaching out across the table to place a hand lightly over Regina's.

This, however, only caused Regina to choke harder, her eyes growing wet as she gasped for breath.

Emma shot up from her seat and was around the table in an instant, crouching down beside Regina's chair. The older woman began rubbing circles on Regina's back as she soothed, "Shh, hey you're okay, you're okay," until her former student finished catching her breath. Emma reached with her free hand, the other still rubbing Regina's back, and picked up the glass of water that started it all in offering.

Their fingers brushed when Regina took the glass, but thankfully the static rush that caused her fingers to almost tingle with the sensation didn't cause her to choke again as she carefully sipped at her water. She sniffed as she took up her napkin and dabbed at her eyes and wished she had a mirror so she could check and make sure she didn't look a sight.

"All good now?" Emma asked, her hand growing still on Regina's back.

"Yes, I am. Thank you," Regina said, regretting her words once the warmth of Emma's hand was gone and she'd returned to her seat, but exaggerating the matter would have made her seem petulant.

They returned to eating quietly for a few minutes, and Regina thought idly about how right Emma was about this place, both back in high school, and now, the food was nothing short of delicious.

"So, one of my now former students almost burnt down the school," Emma said, casually resuming their conversation.

Regina put down the bite of food that was about to reach her lips and looked at the older woman. "Excuse me?"

"I shit you not, this kid almost fried the entire school with everyone in it," Emma insisted.

"How on earth did they manage that?" Regina asked.

"I had my kids using Bunsen burners, matches were involved. One of them tossed his match in the trash can, a trash can full of paper towels and god knows what else, without making sure it was out. So I'm talking them through the next set of instructions when WOOSH!" Emma exclaimed, with theatrical hand motions to boot, "the trash was on fire and everyone lost their minds, all the kids start screaming, I'm standing there staring at the fire like an idiot. Long story short, we know the sprinklers work and I had to replace my laptop."

"Was everyone okay?" Regina asked, a pang of worry writhing in her chest. Emma was alive and well before her, but it might just kill her if Emma had been seriously injured once upon a time.

"Oh yeah, it was fine. I mean, I'm not gonna lie, I got really wet and the principal reamed my ass over it, but nothing major," Emma assured her.

Regina's face felt blazing hot and she prayed she didn't look like a total baboon and that her face had settled for a light tinge of red and not an outlandish shade of purple. The idea of Emma _wet_ and being reamed in the way Regina's mind ran with those thoughts was almost too much for the poor woman to bare. She forgot how to breathe for a few seconds, which felt like minutes and made her wonder how long she'd been sitting there looking like an ignoramus.

Clearing her throat, Regina offered a crazy story of her own. "Well, I can top that. Have you met a Caltech engineering major before? I was TAing this one class where a student was a hundred percent certain that he could make a death ray out of his computer's keyboard. He practically raved about it, we almost had to have him removed from the class while he was building it because he got so riled up."

"So what happened?" Emma asked around a gulp of tamale.

"He was expelled shortly after his creation was complete, not quite a death ray but he did manage to build himself a taser and there's a strict no weapons policy."

"Jesus Christ, I'll take pyromaniac chemistry students over death ray doofus any day," Emma snorted lightly before shoveling another bite of tamale into her mouth.

"They're too brilliant for their own good sometimes," Regina said with a slight shrug.

"I'll give you that," Emma conceded with a nod. "I bet you have a lot of stories like that."

"I do," Regina admitted, "but that was by far the most memorable. It's not everyday someone tries to build an actual death ray." She paused as Emma chortled a bit. Then Regina asked, "So, when are you moving to Boston?"

"Next month, I've really only sort of started packing," the blonde woman confessed.

Regina shook her head. "Why is it I don't find that wholly surprising?"

"Oh shut up," Emma snapped playfully, a hand reaching across the table to lightly swat at Regina's arm.

"Now, but if I did that I couldn't offer to help you pack, could I?" Regina asked.

"No no no no no, seriously Regina," Emma insisted, "you by no means have to help me pack, I think it's safe to say you've helped me enough for a lifetime with all the late night grading and lab cleanup."

"Nonsense, I'm perfectly happy to help, and besides, it'll be just like old times."

"Hmm, old times were pretty good weren't they?" Emma asked with that silly grin of hers. And then, "You're sure you don't mind?"

"I wouldn't have offered otherwise," Regina promised. She would help Emma build a staircase to the moon if the older woman took it into her head to do so.

"I would offer to help you pack, but I know you've probably been packed and ready for take off for weeks now haven't you?"

"While I'll admit to holding some organizational prowess, I am not, nor will I ever be a space cadet."

That quip earned her a snort from Emma who finally set her fork down as their food was now completely devoured.

"Besides, most of it was packed up from LA, and I haven't unpacked much since coming to Storybrooke," Regina said.

"Ooof course it is," Emma said with a nod, "since you are back in town, you planning on going to your classes ten year reunion?"

Regina sighed, "I may as well since I'm here."

Thoughts of the reunion brought up more of her old daydreams, dreams in which she and Emma could possibly be together, where they had been for years, and she went alongside Regina to this class reunion, proud to be with one another.

"So, are you going stag or are you taking someone?" Emma asked.

"No," Regina said, "the person I would like to go with probably cannot make it."

Emma smiled just a little bit bigger, a mischievous glint returning to her eyes, "Ah," she said.

"Ah?"

"Well, I figured if you didn't have anyone special to take, you'd at least go with one of your old high school friends," Emma elaborated.

"Katheryn married Fredrick shortly after college graduation, so they're going together, and Ruby isn't going, Granny is sick."and then before she could think to stop herself, "aside from them, the only friend from high school I have is you."

"Well that's a bit unfair isn't it? The prettiest girl at the dance won't have a date, not even a friend date."

Regina took another sip of her nearly empty drink to pause. "From my recollection, Aurora Baker was the prettiest girl in my class."

"No, no I can promise you she wasn't," Emma said, "She was pretty, not drop dead gorgeous."

Regina's mind raced, her last bit of sanity straining as she tried to process Emma's more recent statement. She began shredding her napkin as she wondered how it was that Emma Swan knew exactly what to say to rile her up.

Regina was saved from her thoughts as the bill arrived and she snatched it up just as Emma went reached for it.

"Regina!"

"I've got it," Regina said, whipping out her card and handing it and the bill back to the waiter before further argument could stop her. "Payback, for ten years ago."

"I paid for your dinner because you saved my ass, it doesn't need paying back," Emma said.

"Well, it's not like you haven't helped me over the past ten years now is it?"

"Point taken," Emma agreed reluctantly, her expression still a bit bitter.

The waiter returned with Regina's card and the women rose from their seats and walked outside.

"Can I at least give you a ride home?" Emma asked.

Regina nodded. "If you don't mind," she said looking towards the darkened sky.

"I wouldn't have offered otherwise," Emma quipped, throwing Regina's earlier words back at her as they headed for her Bug. "You still live at the same address?"

Regina nodded, and Emma asked no further questions, the blonde woman drove Regina home without asking her for directions.

Which meant she remembered, which impressed Regina, that Emma cared that much.

Emma shut off her Bug and they sat silent as the Bug cooled down.

The two women looked at each other for a moment, neither speaking.

And the. Regina blurted out, "Would you, perhaps, want to go with me to the reunion?"

Emma stared at her for a moment and Regina of course began babbling.

"It's just that…it could be like…you're last hurrah! You know before you leave, getting to see the the first class you taught, and you know umm…then the prettiest girl wouldn't have to go alone. And you don't have to or anything, I just, I just thought that maybe it would be a good idea."

Emma nodded slowly. "Yeah, yeah I think that's a good idea too."

Regina bit her lip before asking, "Really?"

Regina's heart sped up that same frightening way it had all those years ago when she first met Miss Swan. All those dreams felt like opportunities stretched out before her. God, this was something different from going to dinner with Emma, class reunions were where you showed up and brought your life's accomplishments with you, you talked about what kind of job you have, what kind of house, what kind of car, where you live, and you bring your significant others. The person you're sharing your life with. Emma was accepting a request to go as friends, but it could be seen as so much more and she had to know that, had to expect that people may see them as more than just friends.

And maybe, just maybe, they could be.

"Yeah really, I think we'll have fun, you and I," Emma said, reaching out and grasping Regina's hand, interlocking their fingers before bringing the younger woman's hand to her lips, and planting a kiss.

Her lips were so much softer than Regina could have ever imagined. She didn't want this kiss to stop no matter that it was just on her hand. She wanted those lips to press themselves against her skin over and over again. She sat there, incapable of speech, barely capable of thought.

Emma's kiss did end, and their hands lay separated on the console.

"So, I guess I'll pick you up at 8, day after tomorrow. Sound good?"

Regina nodded slowly, murmuring a, "Sounds good." And then she somehow managed to climb out of Emma's car. The Bug roared to life, and Regina watched as Emma pulled away.


	2. Chapter 2

Being knee deep in her old closet made her regret inviting her two idiot friends over for their help. Kathryn and Ruby were currently discussing the pros of going commando to their reunion. A topic that made Regina contemplate wringing their necks. She instead opted for carrying out two more outfits for their approval, which of course, she didn't get.

"I'm sorry I thought this was a class reunion, not brunch with Granny and the Queen," Ruby sniped.

"She's not wrong," Kathryn agreed, "maybe you should try…this!" She exclaimed happily as she snatched up a pastel blue dress from Regina's high school days.

"That most certainly is not my color," Regina said, "and it will never fit, need I remind you, I am a grown Latina woman, I actually have an ass now."

"And to show off your great Latina ass," Ruby said whipping out two pieces of clothing Regina wished she had burned long ago, "you should wear these hot cutoff shorts with this low cut shirt you got a size too small. Give them a little show, some T 'n A."

"No, absolutely not," Regina refused.

"Awe come on Regina, spice up their lives a little bit, most of these ex high school bitches have mom bods now, no offense Kathyrn, you should show them you still got where they've not."

"As a woman with a mom bod but who is your friend and therefore on your side, I agree, you should flaunt it, just…maybe not that much. Maybe in something you'd wear around people, and not in your role as Daisy Duke," Kathryn compromised.

Ruby smacked Kathryn's arm. "Hey! I'm wearing something similar!"

"Of course you are Ruby, you wouldn't be you otherwise. But this is Regina we're talking about, and she's not going to wear that, nor should she."

Regina sighed and returned to the depths of her closet. "There has to be a little black dress in here somewhere."

"That could work, and by work I mean not be too gag me boring, depending on how low cut and high hemmed it is," Ruby said.

"Depending on how it is cut for modesty while still maintaining that va-va-vroom edge," Kathryn amended.

"Sure, fine whatever you prudes." Ruby shrugged.

"I am not a prude," Regina said, voice muffled by the clothes around her as she kept digging. She could practically hear Ruby and Kathryn looking at each other with 'yeah right' looks on their faces. "Don't you shake your heads at each other. I can hear that you are."

"Ten years and she still manages to pull freaky shit like that," Ruby mumbled under her breath.

Regina released a sound of triumph when she finally pulled back a hanger near the back and found aforementioned little black dress. She pulled it out and looked at it for a second. Well, it passed muster with her tastes, after all you couldn't go wrong with a classic, but Ruby would probably say it wasn't enough. Then again she hardly ever listened to Ruby's fashion advice for good reason. The one time she had in freshman year of college had been enough to scar her for life. Who in the world but Ruby would actually think to pair together a miniskirt made of gold sequins and hope that it would stay together short enough that the wearer couldn't bend over or even sit and a glorified blue lace shirt that was more of a bra and mostly see through. She was definitely the only one who could pull it off. Regina had been mortified the whole night and everyone had looked at her like she was from another planet. She was keen to never repeat that experience.

She walked out of the closet and held up the hanger. "What about this one?"

Her friends looked at the dress for a few long seconds before Kathryn took the hanger from her and took a closer look. Ruby came beside her and fingered the fabric. Regina was actually getting a bit nervous considering how focused both people were on a piece of clothing. It couldn't mean good things for her.

"Acceptable," Ruby finally said. "I'd still go for something shorter or lower cut, but this fabric will cling nicely and show off all the right things."

"And it still will look very classy and party appropriate."

"And date appropriate." Ruby grinned, quickly stepping behind Kathryn to make sure she was out of Regina's reach.

"For the last time," Regina sighed exasperatedly, "it's not a date."

"Yeah, we know, you asked her because it will be her final farewell." Kathryn gave her a look that screamed 'yeah right.'

"And so the prettiest girl didn't have to go alone to the party. Bitch, going with me was going alone?" Ruby cocked an eyebrow, trying to imitate Regina but failing miserably.

"Ruby, we all know that you will find one of the guys we graduated with that got hot in the last ten years and then spend the majority of the party doing ungodly things to them. You may have entered the door with me but after that I would have been alone."

Ruby nodded. "Fair point, fair point. I still say Mark Polski will be drop dead gorgeous now that he'll have had time to grow into himself." She licked her lips. "But seriously Regina, don't think we haven't forgotten a few years back when you totally confessed that you had a raging crush on Miss Swan in high school and still sort of carried a torch for her then. This is totally a date."

"She did agree to take the prettiest girl to the party. Who exactly says something like that if it's not a date?" Kathryn asked.

"You guys would and you know it. She could only be being friendly." Regina folded her arms over her chest defensively.

"But you totally want her to be anything other than friendly." Ruby waggled her eyebrows.

Of course she wanted it to be anything other than friendly. It would be the completion of her wildest dreams. Well, maybe not wildest, there were still thoughts floating around in her head about winning the Nobel prize, but it was a close race between the two for sheer craziness. However, admitting that she wanted more than a friendly outting out loud was different somehow than just thinking, dreaming about it.

"Look at that expression, of course she does," Kathryn said.

Regina blushed and looked away. Kathryn put down the dress and stepped in front of Regina. She was obviously trying to catch Regina's eye but Regina wasn't having it. Her friend grabbed her hands and squeezed.

"You know it's not wrong to want it to be a date right?" She asked in a soft voice.

Regina looked back at her and nodded. "I do. I just—"

And then Ruby was at her other side rubbing her upper arm soothingly. "Regina, if there's anyone in the world that Miss Swan would want to go out with, it would be you. From what you told us if she's not interested I'd be surprised. It really does sound like there's potential. You aren't just seeing what you want."

Regina took a deep, shaking breath. It was the first time anyone had said those words to her and she hadn't quite known how much she'd needed to hear them. Tears sprang to her eyes but she blinked them back quickly.

"Thank you," Regina said, matching the quiet tone of Kathryn.

Kathryn smiled at Regina before both her and Ruby hugged her for a long moment before pulling back.

"Now, what are we doing about shoes?" Kathryn asked.

Regina snorted before heading back into her closet. "At least those I have covered."

"They're not high enough," Ruby said.

She rolled her eyes. Here they went again.

* * *

She pulled at the hem of her dress nervously. It was fifteen until eight and she was already ready to go. Emma wasn't here yet and that shouldn't bother her but it did, or really, it just set her nerves on edge even more than they already were. Which at this point was saying something considering she was about to vibrate hard enough to promote all of the electrons that made up her body up an energy level.

Regina balled up her hands in order to keep from stretching out the dress even more than it already had in the few minutes since she'd started fidgeting with it. If she pulled too much more on it, it would look horrible and she really didn't want that. She had looked in the mirror when she was done getting ready and had to admit that everything that Kathryn and Ruby had helped her pick out was wonderful. She looked good, very good, but if Emma was not actually inclined towards her in any way it would just look like she was going to a party and nothing more. As annoying as her friends could be at points, there was no one else that Regina could imagine being best friends with in the entire world. They had come through for her time and time again and been her rock when she needed one and she had done the same in return.

The thoughts of her friends calmed her enough that she finally took a deep breath and stilled herself for one long minute. At the end of the minute her phone vibrated in her purse, and she was across the room in a second to see who had sent her message.

 _Hey, Regina, I'm leaving my place now so I'll be there in like ten._

She relaxed more for a few seconds before tensing back up. Ok, so Emma wasn't going to blow her off, that was wonderful and allayed at least one of her worries, but there were still so many other things that could go wrong. She was always nervous for dates, but this was above and beyond. Which while it made sense to her, it still wasn't comforting.

Regina double checked that she had everything, or more like quintuple checked everything. She still had everything as she had the four times before. She resisted running her hands through her hair. She'd spent far too long on it to ruin it now.

Which of course that thought had her checking her reflection again to make sure everything about her appearance was perfect. Her makeup was still flawless and every strand of her hair was in place. Then again with all the soft hold hairspray that was on her head right now, she was sure that a nuclear bomb could go off and it would stay in place. She chuckled at that. She could even build a bomb to test if she really wanted. But there wasn't time for that.

She paced up and down the foyer of her house, heels clicking, the sound echoing up to bounce around the chandelier. Regina looked up when she heard firm footsteps coming down the stairs. Her father was smiling at her fondly.

"Regina, darling, I don't think I've seen you this nervous since your grad school applications were due. In fact, I think you might even be more nervous."

She felt herself blushing. "It's nothing, Daddy, this reunion just has me on edge."

He looked a bit skeptical at that, but didn't call her on it. Regina had already told him that Emma was picking her up and taking her to the reunion, and if she really had to guess, he probably knew about the crush she had on Emma in high school. Her father was a doctor, he was trained to be observant, and honestly, it really didn't take an observant person to realize that all she had talked about for years had been Emma. God, it might be a better option for her to just melt into a puddle of goo now, or even more fitting, for her to atomize on the spot. She had studied particles so much it would be fitting that she would turn into nothing more.

Regina looked down at her phone. Five minutes had passed in her worry. She only had to deal with five more. She could do it. But then she would have to deal with the reunion itself. Ugh, she was overthinking all of this, thinking in circles, but she wasn't exactly sure how to stop.

"Mija, I'm sure everything will go splendidly tonight, there's no need to worry." Her father wrapped and arm around her shoulders.

Regina felt steadied by his warm presence and relaxed fractionally once again. "You really think so?" she couldn't help but ask.

He nodded. "Of course. You and Miss Swan—Emma," he corrected before Regina could say anything, "were great friends for years before you went to grad school. Bonds like that just don't go away. And as for anyone at that reunion, well, you handled them ten years ago as a teenager, and I believe that as an adult you'll not only be able to handle them, but to run circles around them."

Regina snorted. "Well, that's probably true." She leaned into him a bit more. "Thank you, Daddy."

"But of course." He smiled that same warm smile that had lit up Regina's childhood.

There was the sound of tires in the driveway and Regina perked up and stepped forward. She froze for a second then. She didn't want to seem to eager pulling open the door before Emma even knocked. A car door slammed and Regina was stuck in her indecision, but her father solved that for her by stepping around her and opening the door just as Emma was climbing onto the small porch in front of their front door.

"Ah, Emma, it's been years."

Regina recognized that voice, it was the one he used on patients that were being difficult to scare them into cooperation. Why in the world was he using that voice on Emma? Oh no, he wasn't going to—

"Mr. Mills, it has, parent teacher night ten years ago I believe."

"Ah yes, that was an informative night. I had a good time, so many wonderful teachers here in Storybrooke, we're privileged. It's a shame we're losing you, but it will be nice for Regina to have a friend in Boston."

"I thought the same thing, sir, except I thought it was more lucky for me because Regina is already familiar with Boston from her undergrad."

Regina stopped by her father's side, hoping to put an end to this. He was almost acting like a father on prom night, sizing up their daughter's date. The only thing he hadn't done yet was actually come out and say something to effect of 'take care of her and bring her back before her curfew,' and if he did that Regina was really just going to poof into a collection of far flung atomic particles that had no concept of what Regina Mills was.

"Hi, Daddy, thank you for getting the door for me," she said, pretending like she hadn't been standing in the foyer waiting for twenty minutes. She still had to play it cool even if every warning bell in her head was going off.

She looked at Emma and her breath caught. Oh. Oh my. Emma had always looked good in the business casual required by the teacher dress code, but this was something entirely different. She stood before Regina in a tight red dress that bared her shoulders and a modest amount of cleavage with a hemline that was verging on daring, hair curled and falling gently around her shoulders, with makeup done to bring out her eyes. It was better than every single one of Regina's fantasies of what the other woman would look like dressed up.

"Regina," Emma breathed out. She looked Regina up and down slowly and licked her lips.

Regina had to swallow hard at that. That definitely was not something a friend would do, but…

"Well, I believe it looks like you two will have a good time together, won't you Emma?" Henry asked, the last of his words full of meaning. And then Regina was blushing for a completely different reason because her father had basically just completed the father on prom night thing, even if he hadn't stuck to the usual script. She wanted to groan out loud but managed to hold it in.

Emma's gaze snapped from Regina to Henry. "Of course we will, sir." She looked back at Regina. "Shall we? Your bright yellow chariot awaits."

"You mean my bright yellow death trap." But she stepped forward anyway. She turned back at the last second to shoot her father a look that screamed, 'we are going to talk about what you just pulled later' before saying "Goodnight, Daddy."

"Goodnight, darling." And he shut the door.

Regina turned to Emma as they walked down the sidewalk to the driveway. "I'm sorry about that."

Emma waved that off. "Trust me, I've definitely had worse. Nothing will beat nineties dads when I was a foster kid. They already didn't trust me because I was from the wrong side of the tracks and then I was taking their baby girls out somewhere." She shook her head. "And that was when most of them didn't know that I was taking them out on dates. The guys I went out with were easier, definitely, but that didn't exactly make me consider only dating boys."

She followed Regina around to the passenger's side of the car and opened the door for her. Regina felt like she was dangerously close to finding out what swooning actually felt like, as she slipped into the car and Emma shut the door and walked back around to flop into the car and start it.

"You never were a person to take the easy way out just because," Regina said once she had recovered enough to speak.

Emma laughed. "That's true. How many times were you around for those stupid organizing campaigns I went on when I got fed up with my own mess? It was never an easy organizing system that I wanted, was it?"

Regina snorted. "God, no, of course not, and it was never like a manageable area of the room to do at once either, it was like all or nothing. And then we would work for hours at a time and get halfway done by like ten o'clock and realize that we weren't going to finish before the next day and your classes and things would get shoved back maybe in a bigger mess than they started out in, repeat ad infinitum."

"Hey! I'm not going to keep repeating that until eternity, thank you."

Regina just looked at her with a disbelieving smile. "I'll believe that when I see the state of your classroom."

Emma looked away sheepishly. "I may have slowed down the reorganization efforts because I didn't have a minion that would help out like you would."

"Ah, well, I suppose that is a reason that you wouldn't repeat that pattern into infinity then."

Emma stuck out her tongue childishly and Regina just laughed.

"Such witty repartee. Did your stint in grad school gift you with such eloquence?"

"Nah, I think I'm going to credit the fact that I work with teenagers five days a week for nine months of the year for that one." She flicked the blinker, pulsating light reflecting off her face in weird ways. Regina was captivated, but then, was that really a surprise?

"Fair point."

They drove a couple more blocks in companionable silence before they pulled into the school's parking lot, strangely alive for a night in the middle of the summer. There were banners everywhere with class reunion and their graduation year and mascot and probably anything that the organizing committee thought was relevant. Regina shook her head. She really hadn't expected anything else and yet.

"Was your ten year reunion this tacky?" Regina asked as Emma pulled into a space.

"Oh god, it was worse. Miss Blanchard helped plan it and there were pastel birds. Pastel birds, Regina, it was horrible. Though it became an instant running gag between everyone who was there so not all was lost I guess."

"Pastel birds, but how?"

"Never ever test how many places that woman thinks birds are applicable. I'm pretty sure she might be able to talk to them, and I don't just mean parrots."

Regina looked at Emma with a slightly freaked out look on her face.

"Yeah, I know, love the woman to death, but she's weird." She shrugged, turned off the engine and was up and out of the car and around to Regina's door before Regina could even reach for the door handle.

"You know you don't have to keep doing that," Regina said as she stood up.

"Of course I don't have to do it, I want to do it." She offered her arm to Regina. "Come on, let's go show them what they've been missing for the last ten years."

Regina looked at Emma, the perfect picture of what she had imagined when she was younger. All she had to do was reach out and take it now. It had been so difficult for all these years to figure it for reality, but here it was. Her hand stretched forward, looping through Emma's arm and tucked itself into the crook of her elbow. It was almost an out of body experience, but then she felt the warmth of Emma's soft skin below her hand and it all cemented as real.

"Let's," she finally said, looking at Emma who was so very close to her now.


	3. Chapter 3

They walked into the gym together and the tacky decorations only intensified. Emma glanced over at Regina with a hardly repressed smirk on her face. Regina snorted but said nothing. There were a few couples in front of them checking into the party, and oh god they were actually announcing people as they walked in as if it was prom all over again.

"Do you feel like we're at prom again?" Emma asked, echoing Regina's thoughts.

"I was just thinking the same thing, so yes."

"Some people just never leave high school," Emma said as they moved forward one place.

"Um? In all technicality you never left high school, Emma."

Emma laughed. "It's not like this is the same high school I went to back in the day. And it's not like I act like I'm sixteen, now do I?"

No that she did not. "Fair enough."

They stepped up to the table and Regina was staring at Samantha Dix, the president of their class senior year, ten years older, but still with that same rather obnoxious smile on her face. She had been nice to Regina in school though, so she ignored the rather unfortunate expression as she had back then.

"Regina, wow, is that you?" Samantha's eyes swept up and down Regina. "Definitely not the mousy girl I remember who always talked about science."

Regina smiled politely. "Oh, I still talk about science all the time, I'm a professor at MIT starting this coming year, but yes, I've grown into my features nicely."

Samantha dug around in the large-ish box in front of her. "Still Mills, right?"

"Yes, it is." And would be as long as she had say over it. A career in science worked out better if you kept your name the same for publishing purposes.

"Ah, here it is." She held out an envelope for Regina. "That has your name tag in it, a schedule of the night, and a blank name tag for your date." She finally actually looked at the woman standing by Regina and her jaw dropped just a bit. "Oh, well, I don't suppose a name tag will be needed for you, Miss Swan. It's nice to see you again too."

Regina looked between Samantha and Emma for a long second, watching their interaction. She should have thought of this sooner. What she had thought would be a last hurrah for the other woman could totally be misconstrued as something more. And maybe it was something more? Regina hadn't figured that out still, but that wasn't the point right now because news of their maybe date tonight would be across town by morning. And even though she was ten years out of high school maybe it could still adversely affect Emma and her career. Maybe that new job in Boston suddenly wouldn't be a thing if they got wind of this. Oh god, why hadn't she thought this through sooner?

"Nice to see you as well, Samantha. How's life been treating you? Did you go for that nursing degree you wanted?"

Samantha nodded. "Yup, passed chemistry with flying colors thanks to you. Got engaged to one of the doctors last summer too, so life is good right now."

"I'm glad to hear it." Emma looked behind her at the little line that had formed. "But we should let you get back to your job. Perhaps we'll talk more once the party gets going." She smiled once more, and then gently pulled Regina farther into the gym.

Regina tried to take a deep breath. There had to be some way to do damage control here, right? But then they were walking forward and the announcer was calling out their names and Regina could feel so many eyes on them and there went all real chance of damage control. She watched as everyone in the room took in their entrance, eyes looking them over, some in a predatory fashion, some in surprise, some with envy, and some with just a hint of disgust.

"Everyone is looking at you," Emma said quietly. "Seems like showing them what they were missing is going well."

"No, I think they're looking at the both of us. Maybe this wasn't a good—"

Emma cut her off. "Only because we're the hottest couple in this room. Look at Tony Lafou, he's got a beer gut the size of Canada now. I fucking called that." Her lip curled a little bit. "Also he's looking at you like you're a piece of meat. Didn't think that would change either, but I hoped he would stop being a narcissistic chauvinist."

"Emma, but—"

And once again she was cut off by Emma slipping her arm out from under Regina's,but a second later wrapping it around Regina's waist and drawing them forward. "Look Regina, pigs in a blanket! They're totally my favorite." She smiled at Regina, this knowing look in her eyes before grabbing a plate and an ungodly amount of pigs in a blanket and munching away happily.

Regina had the feeling that she'd just been played in a pretty big way, but she wasn't unhappy about it either, really. Emma had managed to shut out Regina's worries without a big scene or even a long conversation, she had just brushed them aside, shown Regina that it was all fine, and gone on with the night. And if Regina hadn't have fallen in love ten years before she thought she might have again, and maybe she was in a way, twenty-eight year old Regina was finding new, more mature reasons to love the woman in front of her. She shook her head and grabbed her own plate with a reasonable number of pigs in a blanket along with some of the healthier options.

She munched on a carrot as Emma gestured over to a gaggle of girls that she remembered vaguely. She thought they were cheerleaders, but she wasn't sure. She hadn't run in the same circle as them and they hadn't taken any of the advanced classes that Regina had.

"So you haven't been in town for the veritable blow up that happened a couple years back. Milah there," she pointed at the dark haired one in the group, "married one of her professors from Storybrooke Community College after her freshman year. It was a big thing in the teacher community because almost all of us thought she did it to save her grade in his class, and it didn't hurt that he was rich as sin to boot. It went well for a few years, but then the whispers started flying that she was cheating on him. Gold, that was the professor, was _pissed_ about the rumors, especially since he was basically the last one to know." She gestured again across the room to Killian Jones. Regina definitely remembered him, the slime ball. "Turns out Milah had been banging Jones since the beginning, and probably even before, but no one was a hundred percent sure on that point. So Gold goes to divorce Milah and leave both her and Jones with peanuts and maybe not even those, but then it turned out that Milah was pregnant. And she didn't know whose it was. Gold had wanted a child for longer than I think any of us here have actually been alive, so he stopped everything. They got a DNA test but the biggest plot twist here was that Milah was having twins they found out later, fraternal, and the boy was Gold's and the girl was Jones's."

Regina pulled in a breath. "That can happen?" She tried to reason it out, but it had been a good while since high school biology.

Emma hummed her confirmation. "It's rare, but it happens. Gold waited for Milah to have the kids and then until they were switched from breast milk to formula a few months later and then he not only slapped a divorce on Milah, but a custody battle for both of the kids. He discredited both Milah and Jones as parents calling them young and reckless, and he wasn't too far off, just in scale of their problems. He won of course, but the town for a while took sides, either Gold's or Milah's, hardly anyone was with Jones, but who blames them."

"Wow, I really did miss something."

Emma laughed. "Oh yeah, there's nothing to do here, really, but the gossip I always good at least."

"What about the kids, are they doing well?" Regina asked.

"Oh yeah, Gold got a nanny for them, smart girl, a few classes ahead of you, lost her job when the library had to cut funding, but then Gold swooped in an employed her. He ended up marrying her too last winter."

Regina titled her head. "Well then, at least someone got a happy ending out of that." She stopped for a second. "Let me guess, Jones is unemployed now and Milah has to support him?"

Emma snorted and nodded. "Oh yeah, they have to live on his boat because they don't have enough money for an apartment and it was the only thing that Gold didn't take from him. I give Milah another few months of his shit before she snaps and leaves him."

They both watched Milah looking over the male contingent of the reunion with hungry eyes.

"I give her a few weeks with how she's looking at some of these people," Regina said.

"I think you might be right."

They turned towards each other and just shook their heads.

"And straight people think lesbians are the dramatic ones," Emma grumbled.

"We can go rather nuclear, but I think that's rather a feature of being human than anything." Regina glanced over at Milah again. "But that is a bit beyond the pale there."

"See?" She popped the last of her pigs in a blanket into her mouth. "You wanna know who has five kids already?"

Regina's shocked expression was enough for Emma to go on. The other woman gestured over to a corner to Ashely and Thomas. They had been the couple that had gotten together at the beginning of high school and had never split up. Regina was a little shocked to see them still together, honestly. Puppy love like they had had didn't really last in her experience.

"No, really?"

"Yup, has the first one a year out of high school, waited a few years after that one, then had the last four practically right on top of each other. Only reason they're making it is because Thomas got a job at the mine and it pays good money. Ashley is at home with the kids working on an online college degree I hear so she can teach kindergarten when all of them hit school age."

"Jesus, I can't even imagine."

"Right, I can't either. I mean, I'm pretty sure I will want kids someday, but five? No, never, that's like a fucking class of kids almost. I would like a break when I get off work."

"Definitely." Though she wasn't sure she wanted children at all. She was still so scared that she would turn out to be too much like her mother in all the wrong ways. She couldn't raise a child like she had been raised. It would be too cruel. But maybe…if it was with Emma with her casual goofiness and laid back attitude, she thought they would balance each other out as parents well. She shook herself. It was much too early to think along those lines.

Regina looked out over the room that was still filling with the last minute stragglers. She caught sight of Phillip and Aurora and smiled. They had been in all the advanced classes with her and so she had known them well, not well enough that they hadn't lost contact after a few years, but still, they were a welcome sight. Mulan came in right after them. Regina hadn't known her quite as well, she was only in the advanced English classes and was the school's star fencer, but she remembered that she was close with both Phillip and Aurora.

Mulan caught up with the other two and slotted herself in the middle of the group, wrapping an arm around both of the other's waists and drawing them closer, saying something that had the other two laughing. It seemed oddly intimate.

"Do you know anything about those three?" Regina asked.

Emma glanced over where Regina was pointing but shook her head. "I remember that they all picked University of Maine and didn't comeback much after that, or at least I didn't see them if they did."

Regina kept looking at the three of them while they started to move about the group, greeting old friends. "Do they look couple-y to you?"

"All three of them together you mean? Or two of them?"

"The three of them."

Emma huffed out a breath after a long minute. "You know, I'm not exactly certain, but then again if I take all of their actions and consider them in each of the separate groups of two, I know it would totally read to me as couple behavior."

"Yeah, I was thinking along the same lines."

Emma smiled. "Good for them. Not exactly something I thought I'd see from someone coming out of Storybrooke High, considering the whole dynamic on gay people is still a bit tense, but more power to them."

Regina nodded along to that, but her curiosity had been peeked, and she really wanted the answer. Then again, this wasn't a science problem and the answer probably wasn't really any of her business unless one of the group told her of their own free will.

"Haven't you learned in your ten years here, Emma, small towns hide a great deal under the surface."

"Well, that is true, definitely true. You make a good point." She threw her plate in the trash. "You remember that one time when people were convinced that the mob was running drugs through the area?" She laughed.

Regina grimaced. Oh, she remembered. Everyone had thought it a rumor, but she distinctly remembered her mother meeting with more than a few shady people at their house at late hours and a glimpse of a suitcase full of money. By the time she had graduated the meetings had stopped, but Regina still remembered.

Emma looked at her. "Wait, what was that look for?"

"Nothing." Her mother was dead, some of her secrets should probably be buried with her.

"Ok, no, I'm going to remember that for later, but for now I'll drop it." Emma turned to look at the dancefloor that was starting to fill up now that the music's volume had been raised. "But for now, wanna dance?" Emma held out her hand, looking at Regina expectantly.

Regina took her hand without much hesitation. Dancing sounded like the perfect thing at the moment. There was a flash of the past, a remembered wish from prom that Emma could have been dancing with her that night that had been left by the wayside after Ruby and Kathryn and Daniel had all pounced on her and drug her to dance and laugh and consume more blue slushie in one night than she'd had in her entire life. But really, in this place that was all about the past and remembering, maybe she should just live in the present for once. It was starting to evolve as everything she had ever wanted anyway.

Emma led her out to the dancefloor where the music was so much louder, which was always surprising despite what she knew of sound mechanics now. It was some pop song that had been popular when they were in high school and Regina remembered it pumping out of practically every car that drove by her senior year. It may have even been their class song, she didn't know.

The crowd was pressed in together tight which meant that Emma was very, very close to Regina. Emma laughed and raised her arms above her head and started to dance, smile large on her face. Regina stood there for half a second just looking at the other woman in awe, heart beating hard in her chest. Then she finally managed to remember that she was supposed to be moving and dancing and having fun, though she was definitely having fun anyway, if her version of fun was getting to stare at the woman of her dreams dance in front of her after eating her weight in pigs in a blanket, which Regina was pretty sure it was.

Her hips found the rhythm easily and she thanked Mal for all those weekend visits to bars that were probably in the wrong part of town but the music had been good and the alcohol had been cheap enough for a grad student salary and Mal had been patient enough to teach her how to let go and actually club dance, not try to force herself into some stilted dance her mother had made sure she knew in preparation for her supposed career as a politician. God, when she told Mal about this she was never going to hear the end of it. She would almost be as bad and Kathryn and Ruby.

Someone bumped her forward and she stumbled just a bit, but Emma's arms were around her in a second, catching her. She looked up and her breath caught at the protective look on Emma's face as she looked over Regina's shoulder and glared hard enough that Regina actually felt people move back a bit behind her. She stood up and rubbed the back of her neck and mouthed her thanks as there was no way that Emma was going to hear her with the music as loud as it was. Emma just gave her a thumbs up and stepped a little closer.

"Gotta make sure you don't fall again, right?" she shouted just loud enough for Regina to make out.

Regina took another unconscious step forward until there was only a few inches between them once more. "As long as I can return the favor as well if you need it."

Emma nodded and in a second was back to dancing as the song changed to something more modern. It still had a fast beat and was easy to dance to, so Regina didn't pay much attention to it. Instead she focused on the moving body in front of her, matching her movements to Emma's and soon it was almost as if she didn't know where she started and Emma began. The music was tying them together in ways she didn't understand and that maybe science didn't have an answer for, or at least she as a physicist didn't have the answer. And really, for just this once, what did it matter?

Songs past, Regina could feel them moving closer to the other and she didn't mind one bit until a slow song came on. She tried to pull back a bit to suggest they go grab a drink, but Emma wasn't letting her go anywhere.

"Nice to have a bit of breather, isn't it?" Emma asked instead now that the music was quieter. She shifted her hands to Regina's hip as she started to spin them slowly around to the slow beat.

Regina took a deep breath. "Yeah, yeah it is." She hesitated for just a second before raising her arms up and circling around Emma's neck. They fit together easily, not perfectly like in some sort of cliché romance novel, but it was still right.

People around them fled to the drinks table and there were only a few people dancing around now. If Regina closed her eyes now she could pretend they were the only ones here. Oh how she really wanted that, but this would do for now.

"This is nice," Emma said quietly. She bent just a little to rest her chin on Regina's shoulder.

"Yes, it is." She could smell Emma's hair this close, a mix of strawberries and something slightly floral.

The song played on, but it was like they were in their own little world. She couldn't really even recall later what song it was. But about Emma she could recall everything, how her breath felt against Regina's neck, how her muscles flexed under Regina's arms, how the smell of her perfume and shampoo mixed, the fact that she hummed along with the song almost absently, how she could feel Emma's heart beating through their chests pressed so tightly together.

But then the music started to speed up again and their little moment was shattered. They pulled apart and smiled shyly at each other. Maybe, just maybe, it was true what her friends had suggested, what she hoped, that this was a date, because the more they interacted the more it felt like one and even if she was being cautious about putting a label to what they were doing, everything was inching closer to being undeniable.

"Would you go grab us something to drink?" Regina asked her. "I have to go freshen up."

"Alright, sounds good. I'll probably grab some more pigs in a blanket too."

Regina snorted. "You're going to eat so many of those that you'll turn into one."

"And here I thought comments like those were only used by exasperated moms. You of all people know how impossible that is."

"Of course I do, but are snarky comments really bound by the laws of science?" She rolled her eyes.

"I'm going to go with yes, yes they are, as with everything else."

"Go, Emma, before one of these idiots with a beer gut that still think they can eat like they have a six pack gets them all."

"You make a good point." Emma slipped into the thickening dance crowd a second later.

Regina sighed and shook her head and headed towards the bathrooms. But as soon as she cleared the crowd she was practically tackled to the ground. She didn't even have to look to know who it was.

"Oh my god, Regina! I knew she had to look good out of all that teacher garb, but Jesus Christ have you seen how she's dressed?" Ruby asked, practically shouting at the top of her lungs.

Regina made a hush gesture, but she knew that it would do little good. Kathryn stepped beside Ruby and nodded along.

"Oh yeah, I mean if you had any doubt about if this was a date or not, you just have to look at her dress to know it's totally a date." The blonde smirked like a cat who'd just eaten the canary.

"Honestly, Gina, A plus on the foresight of crushing on that ten years ago. In that dress she makes me question my sexuality." Ruby wolf whistled just for emphasis. "Tell me you're totally going to hit that. I mean you just have to."

Regina sometimes wanted to strangled her friends and this was totally one of those times. "Ruby, no, I am not going to hit that. It is the first time we've been out together and I am not that type of girl, and until she makes her intentions totally clear this isn't even a date. I don't want there to be any sort of miscommunication that would ruin the friendship we have together." She tried to step around them, because she really did need to use the bathroom as much as she just wanted to avoid her friends, but they saw the move coming and blocked her path. She let out an exasperated breath.

"But Regina, with how you two were dancing earlier this totally is a date," Kathryn said reasonably. "I mean we've been best friends since pre-school and I don't think we've ever danced anywhere near like that. Slow danced together, sure, but never all up on each other."

Regina had nothing really to say back to that. Kathryn was right as much as she didn't want to admit it.

"And you totally do want to hit that at some point. I mean you've wanted to hit that for like ten years now." Ruby waggled her eyebrows.

"That's not the point right now, Scarlet Rose Roth."

Ruby gasped and lunged forward, covering Regina's mouth. "Shut up! People are just starting to forget that my parents thought it was clever of them to name me two different shades of red and nicknamed me after a third. Do you think I want anyone here to remember red cubed? Do you? That stupid chant still haunts my nightmares."

Regina just raised her eyebrows with a smirk. When Ruby's hand finally dropped she spoke again. "Technically it should be red to the fourth. Your last name is a derivative of the German word for red."

Kathryn grabbed Ruby before she could cover Regina's mouth again and Regina nodded her thanks.

"And if you don't want people to know that, then I suggest you lay off with my wanting to have sex with Emma. Tease away at the fact that I've had a crush on her for ten years or that I'm being overly cautious or what have you, but that's where I draw the line. Are we clear?"

Ruby sighed dramatically but nodded. "Spoilsport."

"You've been calling me that since kindergarten and yet you still haven't gone anywhere. Now come on, I really do have to pee and you've held me captive here long enough. I'm sure you're smart enough to walk and talk."

"I'm waiting for my threat," Kathryn said, catching up as Regina strode towards the locker room bathrooms.

"I'm hoping you're also smart enough not to need one, but just remember junior year of college Kathryn if you're really feeling left out."

Regina felt the other woman fade back a step. "Ouch, yep, point taken."

"Who's to say we don't tell all of these things to Emma, Regina?" Ruby asked.

"Mutually assured destruction."

"That didn't actually really work in real life," Ruby protested.

Regina glanced back over her shoulder as she pulled open the door to the bathroom. "No one got bombed, did they?"

"That's not how that worked! That's not how any of that worked!"

"Yes, I know, your double major in history and political science can tell me how it did work, but I can tell you how the bombs they made worked, so I suppose our knowledge on both sides is incomplete."

"Really, Regina, you just had to go for the historical inaccuracy, the one thing that actually sets Ruby off? I'll be hearing about it all night after you go back to your date, and it totally is a date."

Regina smirked and slipped into a stall. "You tease me about Emma and I get to have some sort of retribution right? Consider this yours."

She could practically feel her friends stewing on the other side of the door, both for different reasons as she went about her business. Regina emerged a couple minutes later and washed her hands.

"I think we should mail Emma Regina's seventh grade class pictures," Kathryn said in a mock whisper.

"Oh god, the one where it rained and Regina hadn't learned about waterproof makeup or good quality hair products yet?"

Regina whipped around murder in her eyes. "Don't you dare. I thought we settled this."

"Yeah, that's the one," Kathryn continued on as if she hadn't heard Regina speak. "By the time Emma saw her at sixteen she was much more put together. Don't you think she'd find little awkward Regina adorable?"

Regina sat back against the sink. "Why am I even friends with the both of you?"

"Because you love us," Ruby said, finally turning back to her.

"Sometimes debatable."

Kathryn and Ruby were suddenly at her sides again, squishing her in a tight hug. Regina returned it without much fuss.

"Idiots, the both of you."

"Your idiots," they both said at the same time.

When they let her go Regina finally walked out of the bathroom and back into the crowded room. Her eyes immediately sought out Emma and she found her just where she thought she would, by the refreshments table, munching away on pigs in a blanket, holding two cups of punch easily in the crook of her arm. She had just taken a step to go over to Emma when Ruby's voice stopped her once more.

"Oh god, Regina, you've got it bad. You just looked like a lost puppy until you finally saw her." Ruby was smirking again and Regina wanted to groan.

She turned to face her friend. "I did not look like a lost puppy. I was just looking for her, nothing more. There was no lost expression on my face puppy like or otherwise."

"And you would know because you can see your own expression," Kathryn said, deadpan.

"I can feel what expression my face shifts into and have lived long enough to know what each expression feels like. It is my own body after all."

Kathryn and Ruby just looked at each other with a 'sure' look on their faces.

"You can deny that Regina, just like you're denying that this is a date with Emma, and the fact that you want to kiss the hell out of her too, but that doesn't mean that it's not true."

"You both won't rest until I admit all of those things, will you? You're going to try and to do something stupid like pop in to visit Emma while not actually meaning to do anything of the sort and then just casually drop literally all of my secrets into the conversation."

Again Kathryn and Ruby looked at each other. "Yeah."

"Definitely."

Regina took a deep breath. "Why?"

"Because admitting it to yourself is the first step to solving your problem."

"It's not a problem. You're talking about this as if it's an addiction."

"Isn't it?" Ruby tried to cock an eyebrow but she was smirking too widely for it to really be effective.

"Fine. Fine. This is a date between Emma Swan and I, I looked like a lost puppy when I was looking for her because I'm so gone on her, and I really, really want to kiss her. Happy?"

"Hey Regina," Emma said from right behind her.

And in that moment Regina wanted to die. But she was definitely taking her friends with her.

She whipped around. "Uh, hello, Emma."

Emma held out a full cup of punch to Regina with a knowing smile on her face. "You were gone for a long while so I decided to find you." She looked over Regina's shoulder. "Hey you guys, haven't seen you in a while."

"Hi Miss Swan," they both said.

"You look great," Kathryn said.

"Yeah, where did you get that dress?" Ruby asked, expression innocent, but Regina knew her intent was anything but.

"Got it the last time I was in Boston as an after interview treat at one of the little shops. Couldn't tell you where now, but it had a great selection, just not teacher salary friendly. And thank you Kathryn, you look lovely as well."

Regina, meanwhile, was chugging the punch glad that there was a healthy dose of alcohol in it to numb what had just happened.

Emma perked up as a vaguely familiar song came over the speakers. "You guys don't mind if I steal her back for now, do you? I love this song."

"Go ahead," Kathryn said.

"If anyone was stealing her tonight it was us." Ruby smiled.

Regina skulled the last bit of her drink at that and placed the cup in Ruby's hand. "Well since you aren't dancing you can take care of that for me." It was stupid, petty revenge, but it did make her feel at least a little bit better.


	4. Chapter 4

Emma took her hand and led her back out to the dancefloor where they fell in easily again despite the fact that Regina was mentally banging her head against the wall. She couldn't believe that Emma had heard everything, or at least enough of, what she had said. She wanted to melt into a pool of goo right then and there.

And then Emma was turning Regina around and pressing close. Then Regina wanted to melt into a puddle of goo for an entirely different, much more pleasant reason.

"Sorry, this is totally a club song and needs to be danced to like one, don't you think?" Emma asked in her ear.

Regina just nodded, unable to do anything else with Emma's front pressed so firmly against her back. She hadn't seen the draw of club dancing until that exact second. But now she understood and wasn't sure there was any going back after this.

And again, they were lost in their own little world dancing to song after song, switching positions as the songs called for, but Regina's favorite was always with Emma pressed up against her, though in a close second was when Emma pulled Regina's front to her back and they danced like that for a few songs.

Everything was going so well until Robin Locksley bumped into them cutting his way through the crowd. He stepped back, lips moving in what had to be an instinctual apology. When he actually registered who he was talking to he smiled and raised his voice.

"Well, look who it is. I haven't seen you in years, Regina."

She took a step back from him. "Uh, yes, I suppose it has." She didn't make the effort to speak over the music. If he couldn't hear her maybe he would go away. There was definitely a reason she didn't actually seek Robin out. He had been annoying in high school and the only reason she'd talked to him much at all was the fact that during senior year she'd tutored him as part of one of her mother's thousand extracurriculars that she wanted Regina in to make sure she got into an Ivy League. He'd been dumber than a tree because he was lazy and expected the work to be done for him by someone on his football team or by the teachers giving him a break because he was the quarterback. Looking at him now with the cocky smile she didn't think much had changed.

He glanced over at Emma and frowned. She remembered that he'd almost failed chemistry because Emma had been one of the few teachers who didn't give slack to athletes. She'd overheard him bitching about Emma ten years ago. Surely he didn't hold a grudge ten years later.

But then he was trying to step between Regina and Emma, angling his body just slightly and moving forward. Emma cut him off before he could complete the maneuver with a fake smile.

"Robin, nice to see you. It seems as if the last ten years have treated you well."

"Uh huh," he said shortly, barely acknowledging Emma.

Regina felt her eyes narrowing. How fucking rude. She opened her mouth to tell him what an asshole he was being, but he cut her off.

"Don't know why someone like you would dance with her. You always could have anyone you wanted, even back in high school with that nerd vibe you had going on you still were the hottest girl in school."

"I'm dancing with her because I like her, Robin. Unlike you she happens to be a wonderful person." She bit out each word. She didn't want there to be any misunderstanding.

His face started to crumple. "What, you actually like this bitch? She almost failed half the team our junior year. She probably gets off on people's suffering or something. Who even invited her here? No one wants to see her."

She took a step forward, fist clenched and posture rigid. "I invited her. I want to see her. The only one here I don't want to see is you."

His lips pulled back and his brows drew together. "What are you some sort of lesbian or something? That's disgusting. Especially with her. What did you fuck your way to the top of the class back in the day?"

Emma was in front of her in a second, anger radiating from her in waves. "Mr. Locksley I've heard enough from you. This is supposed to be a civil event and you have most certainly crossed the line from civil. If your aim is to be thrown out then go ahead and continue, but I recommend you go back to whatever it was you were doing before you ran into us."

He got close enough to Emma's face that Regina worried that he was going to try to head-butt her or something equally violent. "Or maybe you seduced her into your bed in high school, is that it? Seems like something you would do. All gay people are pedophiles, anyone with a brain knows that."

Emma didn't even blink. "I think the only one without a brain here is you, Mr. Locksley." She inched forward just a bit. "And I wasn't the one sleeping with a fourteen year old in college now was I? Who do you think told her parents about you? Shame your father knows the county judge, well, knew the county judge. He's retired now, isn't he? And you never were very subtle."

He pulled back, eyes widening. "I haven't done anything wrong!"

"Recently. It's a small town. Things never stay buried for long, now do they." Emma looked over Robin's shoulder. "And isn't that your fiancée Marian? I'm sure you haven't told her much about what you got up to in high school even if it was technically legal."

"You fucking bitch, you wouldn't. I'll get you fired."

"You don't scare me Robin. You're still a sixteen year old boy angry because teacher didn't give him a gold star. But I swear to god, if you talk to Regina like that again I will give you something to be scared of, because I don't pull my punches, and unlike you, I actually can pull my head out of my ass long enough to know when a threat is actually relevant." She cocked an eyebrow and tilted her head, a clear 'bring it on' gesture.

Robin shook his head and backed away. "Fuck this, I don't want to talk to fucking dykes anyway."

Emma turned back to Regina. "Sorry about that."

"It's not as if you wanted him to run into us, now is it?" She shrugged. "But I totally had that handled. You didn't need to step in."

"Oh I know, but did you see him, he totally almost pissed his pants after the judge comment." She laughed "Jesus, what the men around here think they can get away with because this is their hometown is fucking ridiculous."

Regina laughed for a few seconds remembering the fish out of water expression that Robin had worn. Or maybe that looked more like constipation. Whatever it had been, it was still very amusing.

"God, you have no idea, Emma. You've only been here for ten years. Imagine growing up here and watching them actually get away with it."

"Ugh, god, I like Storybrooke, but I think it's good to be getting out. It really, really is."

"I agree more than you know." She looked at Emma again. "But, really, I did have myself handled. You don't need to feel like you have to come to my rescue like that every time someone says one wrong word to me."

"I wanted to, but believe me Regina, when I say I know you can handle yourself. You've handled a lot more in your life than you should have had to with a lot more poise than I could have." Emma reached out and took Regina's hands in hers. "But you know, you really don't have to handle everything either. Sometimes if you take a chance on a person they surprise you and don't let you down in the clutch. It's hard to find that person who will choose you over the world, but sometimes…they're just staring you right in the face." Emma drew them close together as another slow song started to play around them. Regina's heart sped up again, both from the proximity and the fact that she felt like they were on the verge of something important. Whatever the next words out of Emma's mouth were, they could change everything.

"In this case, quite literally in both our cases, right? Ten years ago you chose me over you that day in the parking lot at graduation, I saw it in your eyes. It took me a while to figure out what was going on back then. I don't think you knew for a long time, did you? But one too many lingering looks and I figured it out. I worried for a little while wondering if you would try and make a move, but you were too smart for that. I figured you would wait until graduation to tell me that you'd fallen in love with me. That was the smartest decision. But then you didn't. You walked up to me in that lot that day and just smiled this serene smile that told me everything I needed to know. You loved me enough to never tell me. You were protecting me. I don't think I've ever been more grateful for one action in my life."

Emma had known. Emma had that she'd had a crush on her in high school and hadn't said a word even years later when they were still talking when Regina was in undergrad. Oh god. She was simultaneously embarrassed beyond belief and spellbound by the words that were still coming out of Emma's mouth. What Emma was saying wasn't something to be embarrassed about. She could shake her head at her past self for not being subtle enough later, for now that mattered was Emma. What had always mattered was Emma.

"And I hate that we were separated for six years, but I don't regret it because the second I saw you walking across the parking lot I knew something had changed. Enough time had passed and I saw you differently. You were the sixteen year old chemistry student in front of me, you were a grown woman, one I knew already and was very, very fond of and had missed dearly in that time period. That time gap allowed this, allowed us to be on even ground so maybe we could build something. And now that we're here, I can help you like you did me, in a different way of course, because now that you're back I'm not going to lose contact with you again, just be aware of that."

People were starting to thin out around them, and not just for the simple reason that it was a slow song. It was actually starting to get late. So much time had passed and she hadn't even really noticed it. The only thing she had noticed was Emma.

"I wasn't planning on losing contact with you either so that is perfectly amiable to me."

"Good, good."

"Thank you," Regina breathed out after a while. "For everything. You've already helped me more than you'll know, Emma. There's no debt here that you need to feel as if you have to pay."

Emma smiled up at her, a little bit watery in the low party lighting. "Well then, maybe we can just go to a give and take sort of set up right off the bat then. I hear that's how most relationships are these days."

"So I hear as well."

They swayed in place for a while, as more slow songs played. The party definitely was calming down and Regina didn't mind a bit if it meant that she got to dance with Emma like this.

"How did you know I was still interested?" Regina asked after a little while.

"I know you, Regina. You can hide a lot from a lot of people, but you can't hide much from me. Your eyes give you away every time."

"I suppose they do. I was over you until the moment I saw you again and it all came rushing back."

And it hadn't been said yet, but this conversation made it so the actual words weren't needed. This had been a date from the start. She had been so unsure for so long and now…it wasn't a climatic realization, more like something she should have known all along, or maybe something she already did but wouldn't admit to herself. How in the world had the stars actually aligned for this all to play out as it had? Maybe it was some sort of magic, but she most definitely wasn't complaining.

"Feelings are like that, I guess. They can lie dormant, but they're never really gone." Emma's hand came up to cup Regina's cheek.

Regina leaned into the touch. "Now that sounds like something a psychologist might take at least some issue with."

Emma laughed. "Maybe, but it's a soft science and I know you aren't as fond of them as you are hard sciences."

"That would be why I don't have any issue with it." Bolstered now by the conversation between them Regina turned her head and laid a gentle kiss on Emma's palm.

The lights around them came up and the last few people who were still in the gym blinked a bit in the now bright light. Regina looked at Emma and shrugged.

"Time flies when you're having fun?"

Emma laughed. "I guess so. Come on, let's get you home before your father comes after me with a shot gun or something equally prom night-esque."

"I would have killed for this to be my prom night ten years ago, you realize that."

"Oh, I do, but you have to admit, actually being able to drink legally and knowing what you're doing in bed are a hell of a lot better, right?" Emma started to pull them towards the exit.

Regina stopped short though, choking a little bit at Emma's words. Emma for her part just grinned and waited for Regina to recover before leading them out. What an evil woman she'd fallen for. Regina shook her head, but felt nothing but happiness suffusing her being.

"I suppose you're right," Regina finally said. "Prom night I didn't know much about lesbian sex, let alone how flexible I was nor how to make a woman squirt without fail."

She snickered to herself as she saw Emma swallow hard, but they didn't stop walking. Emma grabbed them two of the last gift bags left and they waved goodbye to the organizers, waiting in the wings to clean up everything. Maine nights, even in the middle of summer had a bit of nip to them and Regina shivered lightly. Emma pressed herself into Regina as they walked through the mostly empty lot.

"What do you want to bet someone probably picked through these to get at the best parts?" Emma said, throwing hers in the back seat of the Bug before slipping inside.

Regina maneuvered herself into the passenger's seat and started to go through the bag. She couldn't see much in the light of the street lights but it looks pretty standard for a gift bag at an adult party, little bottles of alcohol, fancy candy, a gift certificate to somewhere she'd never go, things of that sort.

"I couldn't tell you since everything looks pretty standard in here." She looked up again and threw her bag on the floorboard.

"Because you've gotten gift bags frequently?"

"University parties are sometimes very upscale and when you're trying to weasel research money out of companies, well those are very fancy too."

"Ah, well then, you've been to more of those parties than I have then." She started the car and pulled out of the parking space. "Bring me to one of those in Boston, will you?"

Regina looked at Emma, in the changing light as they passed under a streetlight and then drove away, only to repeat the process. "Of course. I wouldn't dream of bringing anyone else."

Emma smiled, glancing over at Regina quickly before looking back at the road. "Good."

They pulled up at Regina's house a bit later. The porchlight was on but no other light in the house was and Regina thanked every god she knew that that was the case. That meant her father had actually gone to bed and wasn't going to pull any stunts like he had earlier.

Either that or he was waiting in the living room with the lights off like some sort of cliché, but she was trying to be positive right now.

Emma stopped the car and turned it off. "Let me walk you to the door."

Regina stopped herself from saying something cheesy like 'I'd let you walk me anywhere' and instead just smiled and nodded. She opened the door and stepped out again into the night. Here in the residential neighborhoods it was even quieter than it had been in town. Everything was asleep, not even a dog was barking into the night. Regina had always loved this time of the night for this quiet when she was living at home. She didn't really get it in Boston or LA and she missed it, but not nearly enough to end up in a small town again in her life. She just stood there for a second and took it all in, eyes closed, listening to the wind blowing high above them, a quiet whistling that didn't touch the leaves on the trees around them.

"What are you listening to?" Emma asked quietly, already beside Regina.

"The quiet. You don't get it in cities."

"No, that you don't." Emma's hand slipped into Regina's, hanging loose at her side. Regina warmed slowly at the touch, eyes still closed, still listening to the wind, to the sounds of their breathing, the rush of blood in her own ears. She knew if she opened her eyes the stars would be out above them, constellations looking down on them, Hercules and Cygnus and their ilk seeing them and judging them as small, but Regina didn't feel small in that moment. Oh she was far from infinite, but she felt larger than normal. Physics really showed how tiny humans really were, they existed for a blink, were dwarfed by the universe itself, and yet they managed to feel so much inside such tiny spaces. Maybe there was something to the theory that everyone and everything was interconnected on some subatomic level. Particles were affected by others in their proximity, and all humans were, really, was particles arranged in a certain structure.

She opened her eyes and turned to Emma. Emma was looking at her with a soft, amazed expression and Regina saw for the first time that maybe she wasn't the only one here that had it bad for the other. Of all the literally countless particles in the universe, she had existed at the same time as the group of particles that made up Emma Swan. The odds were against her from the start, and yet here she was. Feeling swelled up inside her again, and even if everything wasn't interconnected on a subatomic level, she knew that she had to share what she was feeling in some way.

Regina took a step forward, free hand coming up to cup Emma's face. She paused for just a second, checking that Emma wasn't going to pull away, before she closed the rest of the distance. Their lips met, and Regina had observed atoms smashing themselves to bits, releasing so much energy it was hard to contain, and yet this was more. The kiss was more than she ever could have imagined, even as innocent as it was. Had she known it was this good at sixteen she might not have waited, but then, if she hadn't, maybe she wouldn't have gotten this. Everything had fallen in order as it should.

They pulled back after a second, both with silly smiles on their face.

"Wow," Emma finally said. "That was something else."

"Yes, it was."

They stood there for a few more seconds before Emma stepped back. "But your door is over there, and I promised you that I would walk you to it, and I plan on keeping that promise sometime tonight."

Regina laughed. "I suppose we should start walking then. Tonight isn't long for this world."

"I bet you're probably thinking about the exact velocity that the earth spins, aren't you." She pulled Regina forward and across the street.

"No, I wasn't. I was thinking about that kiss, but I do know the exact velocity at which the earth spins. I had to memorize it for more classes than you realize. It's 460 meters per second at the equator, or about a thousand miles an hour roughly. It would be slower this far north of course."

Emma just laughed. "Why did they make you memorize that?"

They stopped in front of Regina's door, under the porch light, covered in a honey yellow glow.

"It wasn't so much they made you memorize most of the time, it's just that a great deal of problems you solved you had to know it or they gave it to you because it was crucial to solving the problem or whatnot and eventually you just remembered it no matter what. Like you have the atomic weights of most of the p-block elements memorized. You didn't set out to do it, it just happened."

"35.453, 12.111, 15.999, yup nope, that just happened."

"Chlorine, carbon, and oxygen?"

"Indeed. Glad to know you remember some of your chemistry."

"You know chemistry and physics overlap a great deal, right?"

They were inching closer again slowly as they spoke. Regina wondered if she was ever going to be immune to the magnet that seemed to draw them together like this. She wasn't sure she wanted to be immune.

"Oh, I know. Maybe that's why we get along so well." Emma kissed her, and this time the kiss wasn't quite as innocent. There was a bit of tongue that had Regina's knees starting to buckle just as Emma pulled back.

"Tomorrow do you have any plans?" Her voice was a little rough and god, that was more of a turn on that Regina wanted to admit.

"No, why?"

"Saturday, lunch, you and me."

"You realize that's later today right?"

Emma grinned and started to walk backward down the sidewalk. "I might."

"Well then, I suppose the answer is yes. But a late lunch."

"I'm glad we're on the same page. Two then?"

She nodded.

"Great, it's a date." One last smile, bright as the sun and almost as blinding, and Emma turned and walked back to her car. "And Regina?" she called over her shoulder. "For the sake of my sanity, maybe wear something that won't cause my brain to melt tomorrow."

Regina laughed. "Oh, that sounds like a challenge, Emma."

"Oh god, it wasn't, but maybe it should be." She shivered hard enough that Regina saw it across the street. "See you tomorrow then, Regina."

"Goodnight, Emma."

Emma climbed into her new monstrosity and drove away. Regina watched her tail lights fade into the distance with a smile. She remembered ten years ago, that feeling of knowing that everything would turn out fine, in the dying light of day, still in her graduation gown. That feeling paled in comparison to the one she had now. Now she had the woman she loved within her grasp. Now it could really be fine. And with that same sense of certainty she'd had a decade ago, she knew it would.


End file.
